Meeting the Family
by MidsummerNightGirl
Summary: It's 12 months after the war and Ginny and Harry have been dealing with a lot. Ginny wants to meet Harry's family. Harry thinks that's the worst idea ever. Mild language warning.
1. Chapter 1

It's been 12 months since the end of the war and slowly everything in the Wizarding world is starting to re-build.

Shops are re-opening, families are starting to dress in colours other than black, mounments are being installed, and the Ministry is going through major overhaul with new leadership, new protocols, and a lot of new staff.

Harry is right in the middle of it; the first few months had been the hardest. He'd slept for 72 hours after the war; a combination of exhaustion, grief, and a mammoth dose of Dreamless sleep that Madam Pomfrey had forced him to drink. His body could focus on wound healing and re-generation whilst he slept so when he woke up the downpour of emotion, guilt, and attention everyone required didn't drown him entirely.

He'd been to more funerals than he could count, been mobbed on the street so many times he now didn't go out without magically modifying his appearance, and slowly had started to re connect with Ginny.

He started slow; sharing stories of the time he'd spent on the road, camping in fear with Ron and Hermione. Listening to her stories of how Hogwarts had been during that time.

Eventually he'd shared with her his near-death experience. How close he'd been to dying, and how Narcissa had recused him. The revelations of the Spirit of Dumbledore in the limbo he'd visited, as well as the revelations of Snape's memories.

Ginny had listened quietly and let him talk and eventually he was spilling all of his emotions. Talking about 5th year and Sirius and the tournament and so many of his experiences. That was a seven hour talk session and Ginny still knew she had so much to learn about her boyfriend.

Sometimes they could have brief moments of normality. Harry would change their appearances and they'd sneak away to muggle London. Harry having exchanged his galleons for pounds and taking Ginny from a fancy high tea at Harrods, to laughing at her as she tried a McDonald's burger for the first time.

"_What is this, Harry?" cried the girl who'd never seen such processed cheese and meat,  
"What do you mean Muggles like this?" _

Then it would all come rushing back, the anxiety starting in Harry's toes and pushing upwards through his body. He'd feel faint suddenly and they'd rush back to the Burrow, run to the old shed beyond the orchard, and hold each other until the memories subsided.

They had their bad days too, when therapy had gone terribly or nightmares struck and they were sniping at each other until a fight broke out. Harry and Ginny didn't argue without noise, they were loud, and fiery, and both stubborn as anything. They were easy to fire and quick to apologise.

One thing Harry never talked much about was his childhood. Ginny knew little bits and pieces but to say she wanted to know more was an understatement. She wasn't nosy, but she loved Harry so much she wanted to know everything about him.

So one afternoon as they were alone in the Burrow kitchen she plucked up the courage to ask,  
"Can I meet your Aunt and Uncle, Harry?"  
Harry dropped the plate he was carrying to the sink, it clanged on the slate floor and split in two.

"Shit," Harry muttered under his breath and grabbed his wand to repair the plate,  
"_Reparo" _he muttered as he watched the plate meld together.

"I really don't think it's a good idea, Gin." He said his a strong tone Ginny knew as the 'voice' he put on when he was actually afraid,  
"No, it's not happening" he declared with even more volume.

Ginny wasn't one to back down from a fight though,  
"So, just a no immediately," she challenged  
"We're not even going to discuss this?"

"What's there to discuss, Ginny?" replied Harry,  
"There's nothing to discuss," he continued, "my relatives are terrible and you're not meeting them."

Then he stormed out the kitchen, up the hallway, and out the front door without a glance backwards, leaving Ginny sitting in the kitchen nook wondering how quickly that had all happened.

**AN: **Hi!  
No long time no see from me on the website. Several years in fact but I got a sudden burst of inspiration. This is a short story with one or two more chapters soon to come

Thanks,  
Midsummer Night Girl


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Ginny let Harry have ten minutes to himself before she moved to go after him. She knew where he'd be, at the end of the orchard doing those stupid Auror exercises he resorted to when stressed.

Harry had joined up to train as an Auror as soon as he was medically cleared for service. The Ministry were overjoyed to have him on board although Molly had thought it was a terrible idea until he was emotionally adjusted. So they'd struck a deal, Molly wouldn't bother Harry to quit as long as went and spoke to the psychiatric Healer once a week at St Mungo's. Ginny knew he'd hated it originally, but her Mum was right, he needed this.

The problem was that although Harry was rather brilliant at defence he was only adequate in many other areas. When he excelled at forming an ingenious and unexpected plan, he also ruined it by his impulsivity in training. So Auror Jones, who Ginny had only met once or twice, took him on for focus mentorship.

Auror Jones was an old, retired Auror who had been brought back to train many of the new recruits after the death of so many in war. He was old fashioned and gruff but Harry had taken to him and vice versa.

So for the first month for Harry in the program, Jones taught him to be patient, how to focus, and extended his journey into rational thinking.

Under this program, Harry had begun to excel at Occlumency, he'd actually sit and read the old Auror journals to learn, and he'd stopped relying on first thoughts and really tried to flesh out his plans.

Jones had begun by assigning Harry three exercises to repeat over and over again in an Auror training room for three hours a day. Jones would sit and Harry would repeat his exercises until he needed a quick break and then he would start again. There was no magic, no fun, and it was all focus. It worked because Jones was the first person of authority to enforce this patience training with Harry but to still care about him. It also meant Harry had reached his peak physical ability.

Ginny hated these exercises, she knew how much they'd helped Harry but now he just ran through them when he was stressed and they were fighting.

As she walked to the end of the orchard she could see she was right, there Harry was completing the rounds. 10 press-ups, 10 jumping jacks, and 10 short, explosive sprints. This routine repeated, gain and again and again…

She watched him for a minute, the frustration evident on his face, before calling out,  
"Harry Potter!" she yelled,  
"We need to talk!"

"Not now, Gin" he called back, puffing heavily between each word,  
"I'm busy,"

"Stop doing those stupid exercises and come talk to me Potter"  
"Not stupid," muttered Harry under his breath but he stopped regardless, recognising his girlfriend wasn't going to give up.

Then they were there, just an inch away from each other, sweat beads on Harry's forehead, and Ginny with a cool expression masking her emotion  
"What, Gin?" Harry sighed.  
"You know what, Harry. You run off whenever I ask about your family."  
"Why do you want to meet them?" Harry asked, sounding slightly confused, "They're horrible, they don't like me, and I don't want you to know them. I haven't seen them in ages anyway."

"I want to know them because you won't tell me anything," Ginny said, grounding out her words a little as she tried to hide her frustration,  
"I love you and I we should share our lives together and you won't let us!"  
"What do you want to know, Gin?" Harry threw his hands up,  
"My relatives treated me dreadfully as a kid, I came to your family when I could, and I'm glad I don't have to talk to them anymore. Let's just leave it in the past. Ok?"

"Not okay, Harry. It's not healthy to not talk to me about this" Ginny folded her arms, and stared at her boyfriend.

Normally this was the point where Harry would apologise, then Ginny would apologise, then they'd sneak out to their favourite Indian restaurant in a muggle town and eat together. This time was different, Harry just walked back up to the house.

Ginny immediately followed him as he went to grab his backpack from the front hall cupboard,  
"Where are you going?" She demanded, "You can't just leave."  
Harry looked like he was going to collapse from stress and Ginny actually felt a little afraid,  
"I just need some space, Ginny" he ground out,  
"I'm going to Grimmauld Place. Please don't follow me."

Then just like that he was gone again.

Ginny was stunned for a moment but it didn't take long for her to go and grab the Floo powder,  
"I'm going out, Mum" she called as she stepped into the green flames, Harry meant far too much to her to sacrifice over this ridiculous argument.

**AN: **I hope you enjoyed. Please leave a review!


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter three

Ginny strode out of the fireplace and into the Grimmauld drawing room, brushing the faintest trace of soot off of her shoulders, just in time to hear the front door be slammed shut as Harry entered.

She heard voices, Ron's and Hermione's, ask Harry what had happened as he angrily brushed them off and as his footsteps approached she simply moved into the hallway to block his path.m

"Gin," he sighed sounding frustrated,

"I told you not to follow me."

Harry sounded hollow now, as if all the anger and exercise had simply zapped away all of his energy and what was left was just a remnant of frustration. Ginny softened the angry words she had prepared at just how exhausted her boyfriend sounded,

"You can't just run away from these problems, Harry" she said softly.

"I know," he nodded, "can we just talk tomorrow?"

She nodded the affirmative and went to hug him, melding herself into his side, they relaxed into each other and Ginny looked up,

"We will talk though, okay? No more running"

Harry closed his eyes and nodded, tightening his embrace slightly.

The next morning, Hermione bustled around the breakfast table busily, pouring tea for everyone as she spoke at length about the meeting she had today, muggle lawyers with a magical child, and she was so excited to talk human rights legislation and how she could apply it to the Ministry that she didn't stop to notice that no one was really listening.

Ron had tried, in the beginning, but had slowly lost concentration and had just taken to nodding at intervals he deemed appropriate.

Ginny had tucked her legs up underneath her as she leant her head on Harry's shoulder as she chewed her toast. Harry was picking at his museli with a spoon in one hand, his other hand resting on Ginny's leg.

They'd slept well last night, but were both so distracted now, concentrating on the conversation they were going to have to have after Hermione left for her meetings, and Ron left for the ministry. Harry wasn't scheduled on until night training, and Ginny was waiting for pre-season to start, so they'd have the house to themselves.

They bid Hermione a rapid farewell as she rushed away, and pushed Ron out the door as well before slowly clearing away the breakfast dishes, Ginny flicked her wand as they began to self scrub and then boiled a kettle of water with another flick of the wand before pouring two mugs of tea.

She added a sugar and a splash of milk to Harry's, then just a dab of milk to hers.

They ended up back at the kitchen table facing one another,

Harry took a sip of the offered tea and sigh,

"Thanks Gin," Then he stars down, seemed to muster the courage form somewhere, and look back up again,

"I'm sorry about running, I know it doesn't solve problems. It's just that I don't know how to feel about my family and I really don't want you meeting them just yet because I don't want you to be so affected by how awful they are." Harry had said this all very fast and then immediately took a gulp of tea before looking at Ginny. Ginny sat there quietly waiting for Harry to pour out his feelings, she knew from experience it took him a while to get started but once it began, he needed to tell all.

"You know I don't like them very much, Gin," he let out a half-laugh, "mostly because they don't like me. I didn't have a happy childhood pre-Hogwarts. Maybe you've heard bits and pieces from Ron but they were horrid."

Ginny knew that Harry need prompting to go on, this was the most he'd ever properly discussed his family with her. They'd spoken at length about war, possession, Voldemort, their nightmares, but not about this.

"Do you want to tell me about it, your childhood I mean?" She asked softly.

Harry seemed to ignore the question and stared down at his mug.

"I know how they'll get under your skin, and I don't want you to have to deal with that."

"Harry, anything that affects you automatically affects me, regardless of whether we discuss it or not." Ginny said quietly, "please talk to me..."

Harry interrupted before Ginny had a chance to go on,

"Dumbledore left me on the doorstep, the night my parents died they left me on the doorstep with a note so they would find me in the morning, they always used to bring it up, just left without an explanation and an expectation. I mean Dumbledore was a brave man and a good man but they never really checked on me after that night."

He looked at Ginny nervously who managed a half smile to encourage him to continue,

"Dudley is three months older than me so they always had someone to compare me to, the weird nephew against their perfect, spoiled son. The first year, we were in the nursery together but when I was almost three they moved Dudley to a proper bed from the crib and I moved to the cupboard under the stairs."

"There was Dudley's room, my aunt and uncle's room, Dudley's second room and my cupboard. They didn't really hit me, although they threatened it a lot, but really it was just a lot of time feeling like nothing. They left me in the cupboard when I wasn't wanted to clean, or garden, or whatever Petunia needed..." Harry was rushing his sentences by this point so took a break to gulp some tea, and Ginny noticed his hands were shaking. That used to happen a lot, the shaking, the Healers concluding post-cruciatus nerve damage but although they mostly had it under control with potions now it came back when Harry was particularly nervous.

"Dudley used to beat me up all the time, broke my glasses constantly, his friends would hold my arms and he'd punch me in the face, wouldn't let anyone talk to me at school..." The shaking had worsened now and his shoulders were involuntary moving,

"You alright, Harry?" murmured Ginny quietly, "want to take a break?"

Harry shook his head, "sorry for getting upset, I mean I wasn't tortured or anything by them,"

"It wasn't right, Harry" Ginny said definitively, "it's ok to be upset, it's not right to lock toddlers in cupboards and let a cousin physically hurt his relative and treat you like a servant."

"I stayed in that cupboard until I was eleven," Harry admitted quietly, "they started to lock me there and not really feed me when I was eight or nine whenever they wanted to teach me a lesson."

Ginny couldn't help herself and gasped a little.

"Your mum and Hermione and a few others pretty much saved me around 5th year when sending cakes and that, Dudley was on some stupid diet which meant even less food than normal."

Harry took another gulp of tea then finally looked at Ginny properly,

"It's weird, they weren't always yelling, which certainly happened, but it was really how they just ignored my pain and my needs that really hurt, and that no one really seemed to care from the ministry that I was barely being looked after."

Ginny nodded and slowly went over to lean in for a hug,

"Do you see why I don't want you to meet them, Gin?"

She nodded thoughtfully,

"I mean Dudley might be alright one day," Harry conceded, "he almost apologised the last time we saw each other, that night I left there."

"Maybe we could start with just seeing him." Ginny suggested

Harry just nodded with exhaustion,

"We'll see, Gin" he said softly.

AN: Sorry for the delay on this chapter. Hope to get on a more regular update schedule soon but life is crazy. Thanks for your patience and please review.


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